Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a serious economic disease of livestock. The causative agent can persist for considerable periods of time in the tissue of infected cattle and swine and has been found to have survived in a number of products produced from infected animals. This presents a risk of introducing FMD into non-affected countries through contaminated animal products, including meat. The possibility of introducing the virus into FMD free areas has led to regulations controlling the importation of animal products from countries where FMD exists.
Cooking of meat products in cans under retort conditions, boiling cuts of beef in plastic bags and cooking cuts of beef in ovens at high temperatures for extended periods of time has been shown to be an effective means of producing FMD virus-free products. However, the products which result from such treatments have very limited use due to their undesirable boiled flavor and texture.
FMD virus contaminated ground beef has been found to be decontaminated by cooking the beef in flexible pouches in water at 75.degree. C. for 20 minutes, however, this product also had a taste and texture of boiled meat which, therefore, has limited use.
Other attempts to decontaminate ground beef and to overcome the undesirable effects of the above described cooking processes, have involved first broiling beef patties at 160.degree. C. to 280.degree. C. for 1 to 5 min. and then cooking the patties in an oven, in a humid environment, to an exit temperature of at least 93.degree. C. While patties cooked in this manner were reported to be FMD virus free, there is no indication of the fat content of the patties. Fat is known to protect the FMD virus from thermal destruction. Additionally, it is desirable for beef patties to have a relatively high fat content since the presence of the fat adds to the organoleptic properties of the cooked product. The relatively mild cooking conditions described imply that the fat content of the patties was relatively low.
It is desirable to develop a process for cooking ground beef to effectively inactivate the FMD virus, where the ground beef has a high fat content, and where the cooked meat retains a desirable taste and texture.
It is also desirable that the meat has a fat content which is relatively high, 20% or more since the high fat content enhances the organoleptic qualities of the cooked product. However, the high fat content of meat is known to enhance the survival of FMD virus present in the meat. Therefore, it is desirable that the cooking conditions are sufficient to counteract the protective effects of the high fat content of the meat.